Save money and the environment

In this blog we will take a look at smart meters, what are they, what do they do and are they good or bad for us.

Up until recently we have only had dumb meters which simply show the amount of gas or electricity we have used. Bills are determined by the frequent reading of the meters either by us or by professional meter readers who visit us on a regular basis. This can lead to under or over paying in some cases and possible financial difficulties.

Several years ago some clever person came up with the idea of a smart meter, which is designed to automatically send meter readings electronically to suppliers, via wireless networks and more recently through a secure national communication network called the DCC. This removes the need for visits to people's houses to read meters, and we should all receive accurate bills and not estimates.

Each smart meter comes with an in-home display (IHD), which will show you how much energy you use in real time, and how much it's costing. So theoretically smart meters should help you to better control your energy use. The idea is that, when faced with their consumption, consumers will be more likely to switch off lights or electrical items that are on standby, or to adopt energy-saving measures. As a result the customers will be nudged into cutting their overall consumption - though early figures show cuts are surprisingly low.

The Government wants every home in the country to have smart meters, and aims to roll them out as standard across the country by the end of 2020. So far only 8 million out of 27 million homes have signed up to change. Just be aware there is no legal obligation for you to have one, by the end of this blog you may decide it is not for you - we at Ecofrenzy will not be joining the scheme!

Benefits of smart meters

Smart meters bring a wide range of benefits. For example:

Smart meters give you near real time information on energy use - expressed in kilowatt hours as well as pounds and pence. They also enable us to check weekly and monthly consumption.

During the installation process installers are supposed to provide you with energy efficiency guidance as part of the visit. These provisions are outlined in the Smart Meter Installation Code of Practice (SMICoP).

You will be able to better manage your energy use, save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Smart meters will bring an end to estimated billing - you will only be billed for the energy you actually use, helping you with monthly budgeting.

In time smart meters will make switching supplier smoother and faster, making it easier to benefit from the best deals.

You will also be able to share data with third parties (such as switching sites) if you want them to give you advice on the best tariff for you.

In the future smart meters may offer improved 'time-of-use tariffs'. These offer cheaper rates at off-peak times or when to smooth out national energy use through the day. You could time the use of energy sucking appliances such as tumble dryers to come on only at off peak times to help save money.

The end of having to remember to provide meter readings and/or have a stranger come into your home to read your meter.

Benefits for pre-payment customers

Smart meters can work in prepayment or credit mode. Prepayment customers will see some particular benefits from having a smart meter. For example:

Your energy supplier may be able to offer you new and more flexible ways of topping up your meter that don't require you to visit a shop.

You'll be able to see your balance on your easy-to-access In Home Display (IHD), so you don't unknowingly run out of credit.

Your smart meter can be set to top up automatically, so that if you do run out of credit at night or when the shops are shut you won't be left without power.

As with everything, the smart meter suppliers and Smart Energy (GB) like to give all the benefits of the scheme and conveniently ignore some of the realities occurring in the home and beyond. Here we give a more balanced view.

Cost of installation​We are told that a smart meter installed is free, however, you'll pay indirectly through your energy bills. Overall, the smart meter roll-out will cost almost £11bn, and it's estimated it will cost every home about £400 for 2 meters.

What if you decide not to have smart meters? We seriously doubt that you will be able to claim back your £400.

Earlier we mentioned that during the installation process installers are supposed to provide you with energy efficiency guidance. EcoFrenzy have carried out a very small survey in our area and not one person mentioned that at the time of installation they had been given any kind of guidance. It would be interesting to see the results of a much larger survey.

We should however mention that some suppliers provide information post installation that will help reduce bills.

In reality it is not in the interest of PLC energy companies to promote this idea, they have share-holders and reduced energy usage means lower profits.

Will smart meters help us save money?

Potentially yes, but so far not mutch. As previously mentioned, their introduction is set to cost consumers £11bn, but a report by Dr. Tania Mathias MP shows they cut average consumer energy consumption by just 3% or less. Consumers are also predicted to save money by being more efficient with energy used at home. However, smart meters will only save you money if you use and act on the information provided by your in-home display to cut your consumption.

If the savings are a mere 3% of an average £1300 gas and electric bill per year then you could save £39 per year. That represents a gross saving of just over £1 billion across all 27 million homes in UK. That doesn't seem like a great return for the consumer, so it's not surprising that doubts are being cast on the scheme. To make it worse in the short term, smart meters may actually cost us money. Scottish Power and SSE blamed their 2017 price rises partly on the cost of installing smart meters.

This is where EcoFrenzy comes to the rescue! We provide a huge range of ways to save you energy and money with simple lifestyle changes. Have a look, and if you use some of our ideas you will quickly see the power consumption and cost reductions on your smart meter display.

Smart meters will need replacing around every 10 years - this is more frequently than current gas and electricity meters. We can only assume that we will see permanently higher bills to constantly renew these meters?

If you are worried about a smart meter then you can buy a low cost energy monitor and install it yourself. This is a device that you simply clip on to your power cable to give you a good estimate of the amount of electricity you are currently using.

Switching supplier

All of the Big Six energy companies, plus smaller firms including First Utility, Ovo, Utilita and Utility Warehouse, are installing smart meters in customers' homes, but what happens when you want to change supplier?

Long term, smart meters should make it quicker and simpler. In theory, they can be instructed to send information about your energy use to a new energy company instantaneously. However, in the short term, smart meters may actually be a barrier to switching. If you already have a first-generation (SMETS1) smart meter, it may turn 'dumb' if you switch energy supplier or in some cases switch tariff with your current supplier. This can happen if your chosen supplier is unable to operate your smart meter. In this case, you'd need to send meter readings again.

It is estimated that currently 866,000 of the 8 million smart meters installed could be operating in 'dumb' mode. On a more positive note it is hoped that by the end of 2018 any first-generation meters already installed will be upgraded remotely so that all energy suppliers can operate them.

Unfortunately, this will not help one group of customers who have found that their meter could not supply readings because the mobile signal in their area was not up to the job. Maybe a test to check local signal should be part of the installation process.

Finally if you are one of the more recent recipients of a meter you should have received a second generation (SMETS 2) meter, this can talk to the 40 or so energy providers that have signed up to the scheme, job done!

Impact of meters on health

Smart Energy GB say 'Public Health England' has tested equipment that comes closest to the specification set out for smart meters. It says that the evidence to date suggests exposure to the radio waves that the equipment produces doesn't pose a risk to health. There will be further research on the actual equipment that will be installed when it becomes available.'

Sounds very wishy washy to us.

If you want to find out more then we suggest you visit Stop Smart Meters. They give evidence that smart meters each give out more microwave energy than a mobile phone by between 160 and 800 times. They also discuss some of the 5,000 studies showing that artificial electric fields such as those produced by smart meters are harmful to us, but this information is being suppressed at a high level.

Who really benefits?

So why are we installing smart meters? The power firms love them because, in theory at least, they do away with meter readers. They should also lead to fewer billing complaints - a huge problem for suppliers - which tend to be caused by human error. With your consent they can also use your data for marketing purposes.Your data can also be sold to other companies.Win win for the suppliers.

​Are smart meters secure?

Ministers have been warned that smart energy meters will leave householders vulnerable to cyber attacks. The threat is so great that the mass roll out of second generation smart meters (SMETS 2) has been delayed.

The intelligence agency GCHQ is said to have raised concerns over the security of the meters, which could enable hackers to steal personal details and defraud consumers by tampering with their bills.

In some foreign countries hackers have already attacked smart meter networks to defraud customers. The cyber criminals are able to artificially inflate meter readings, making bills higher. They then try to intercept payments, and if they simply skim off the difference between the real reading and the false reading, energy companies will think the bill has been paid normally.

Another potential problem is the meters being used as a ‘Trojan horse’ to access other computers and gadgets around the home if the meters are able to ‘talk’ to the other devices. That would potentially give hackers the ability to steal personal information that could be sold on to other criminals.

There are also fears that countries such as North Korea might carry out a state-sponsored cyber attack to create a power surge that would damage the National Grid.

We are already seeing an uncontrolled rise in cyber crime and if the manufacturers and suppliers of smart meters have not taken the threat seriously then maybe we should. Who will be responsible for thefts from individuals? Will it be down to the energy suppliers to repay the customer?

If you are worried by the above then you have the right to refuse a Smart Meter. Remember, they are not mandatory.

We bet you have never thought about the fate of your mattress once you have got rid of it. Both the mattress industry and the Sleep Council strongly recommend that you replace a mattress every eight years, because by this time it will have lost much of its original comfort and support.

In the UK alone, an incredible 7.5 million mattresses are disposed of every year, that’s enough to fill Wembley Stadium 5 times over! The sad fact is that the majority of these mattresses are sent to landfill. This is an important thing to remember, as mattresses are mostly made up of non-biodegradable and wasted materials. It's certainly not difficult to imagine the significant impact this has on our environment.

As most mattresses contain similar types of material let’s have a look at each one:

Foam - a soft, movement-absorbing material that helps with temperature regulation and pressure point relief. Some common types of foam include memory foam, gel memory foam, polyurethane foam, and viscoelastic foam also known as “rebounded foam.” Polyurethane foam (which most are made of) comes from petrochemicals, these materials take a very long time to break down and can cause serious harm to the environment, however if correctly recycled these material have a use in the insulation industry.

Wool - can be found in some mattresses for extra padding and temperature regulation.

Cotton - is used both inside and outside of the mattress.

Both wool and cotton can be recycled for all kinds of applications e.g padding for chairs and car seats, cleaning cloths and industrial blankets.

Adhesives - are used in mattresses to bond layers, materials and seams together for the perfect fit – not recyclable individually.

Flame Retardants - are found in all mattresses due to flammability laws for fire resistance. Regular spring mattresses are treated with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) as fire retardants. These compounds are extremely toxic to the environment, and they are not biodegradable. From landfill these compounds will eventually leach out into our rivers and down to the sea. Strikingly, it has been demonstrated that high levels of PBDEs can cause neurobehavioral issues and possibly cancer. Similarly, the presences of CFCs in treating regular spring mattresses are also responsible for having a negative effect on the environment, by depleting the ozone layer.

Steel coils - in the form of open coils or individually wrapped coils (also called pocketed coils), make up a key structural component, establishing firm support at the base of the mattress. The steel springs can be recycled, but are difficult to remove from the mattress, and many still end up in our landfill.

In addition, old mattresses can’t be reused. Once they’re used, they’re used and it’s pretty hard to find a market for a used and worn mattress.

However thankfully, there is a solution and several companies in UK now work in partnership with The Furniture Recycling Group (TFRG), one of the biggest recycling services in the country.

Currently, TFRG are able to recycle an impressive 7,000 mattresses every week - that's over 350,000 every year! In fact, over the last four years, TFRG have managed to save a volume in landfill of 4,720 double decker buses - this would fill Big Ben's tower over 114 times!

So how are mattresses recycled?

Working to reduce the numbers of mattresses sent to landfill, the Furniture Recycling Group separates out individual mattress components. These are then distributed to industries that can benefit from these raw materials.

Remarkably, by choosing to recycle, 100% of your old mattress can avoid landfill!

As with all industries there is now a drive towards making mattresses out of safer materials, such as natural latex, bamboo and organic cotton and none contain harsh flame retardants or toxic chemicals.

Mattresses made from 100% Certified Organic Latex are great – natural latex is compostable and 100% biodegradable. Once your mattress has reached its use-by date, you can simply cut it up and place it in your compost heap.

As with all these things you may have to pay a little more but it is worth it in the long term for you and the environment.

Most of us are aware that plastic in the environment is causing all kinds of problems for wildlife, however at another level plastic pollution is manifesting itself in far more sinister ways.

1. Plastics contain additives that are toxic and they also absorb toxins already present in the aquatic environment. When ingested these toxins pass into the tissues of the feeding organism, accumulating there and poisoning whatever has eaten the plastic.

2. Toxins in plastic additives such as phthalates can leach out of the plastic into the aquatic environment, poisoning filter feeding organisms that absorb the chemicals.

These toxins bio-accumulate in the tissues of organisms and increase in concentration as they move up the food chain. The result of this is that by the time we eat a fish we may be ingesting relatively high levels of toxins.

By our own hand we are poisoning ourselves!

Health Problems caused by toxins from plastics

Evidence is growing that chemicals leached from plastics used in cooking and food/drink storage and passing up the food chain to our dinner plate are harmful to human health. Some of the most disturbing of these are hormone-mimicking, endocrine disruptors, such as bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates in PVC.

The plastic polycarbonate

Used for water bottles and various other items requiring a hard, clear plastic - is composed primarily of BPA. Peer-reviewed scientific studies have linked BPA to health problems that include chromosomal and reproductive system abnormalities, impaired brain and neurological functions, cancer, cardiovascular system damage, adult-onset diabetes, early puberty, obesity and resistance to chemotherapy. Exposure to BPA at a young age can cause genetic damage, and BPA has been linked to recurrent miscarriage in women.

Plasticizers

Of the thousands of chemical additives in plastics - and which manufacturers are not required to disclose - one type commonly added to plastics are ‘plasticizers’, which are softening agents making it easier for the polymer chains to move and flex. For example, the commonly used and extremely toxic plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) can contain up to 55% plasticizing additives by weight. These are generally phthalate chemicals. Phthalates are known to disrupt the endocrine system as well, and have been linked to numerous health conditions including cancers. Certain phthalates have already been banned in Europe and the U.S. for use in certain products, such as toys.

The health risks of plastic are significantly amplified in children, whose immune and organ systems are developing and are more vulnerable. The evidence of health risks from certain plastics is increasingly appearing in established, peer-reviewed scientific journals.

If plastics are slowly poisoning us then we need to press our governments for drastic action. They responded to ban smoking in public places, but this is an altogether bigger problem. Plastics are poisoning us all, we need to see a big response to this rapidly and ever growing disaster.

Just 2 years ago most countries in the world signed a treaty in Paris to help reduce CO₂ output to try and reduce the detrimental planetary effects that are associated with CO₂ rise. They all agreed to reduce their production of greenhouse gases in the knowledge that if they did not the consequences for mankind could be dire.

What a joke!

More than ever, countries are dependent on growth, more cars, more aeroplanes, more houses, more airports, and more stuff for more people...​CO₂ recently hit an 800,000 year high (actually it is much longer than that, we only have ice core samples that go back 800,000 years). The Earth’s temperature is rising, climate is changing, the seas are becoming more acidic and sea levels are rising. The ice is disappearing which means more radiation hits the ocean rather than being reflected back into space by ice and so the heating process accelerates. We may be at the tipping point so more urgently than ever we need to do something about it.

We all need to act right now, that is why we at EcoFrenzy are so passionate about giving ideas to anyone who is interested so that we can all help.

Just think what a million people can achieve together. Then what if a few billionaires put their resources together they could change the world, they could force governments to change strategies. They could develop more products to capture CO₂ and return it under pressure to where it came from, i.e. underground. After all the majority of CO₂ has come from hydrocarbons we have used as fuel over the last couple of centuries.

It’s very easy to bury your head in the sand and say, “There’s nothing I can do,” but there is, so come on, contact your MP and ask what their party is doing and what they are doing individually. If enough of us have a go, they have to listen, they have to do something to appease us, they want our votes.

Next, boycott products from countries that are deliberately flaunting the agreement (such as China and USA), unfortunately not as easy as it sounds.

Finally take a look through the EcoFrenzy website to start your own crusade.

We’ve all heard about microbeads and large pieces of plastic film filling our oceans but have you heard about micro plastic fibres?

This has become a very hot topic in recent years, mainly because the severity of the problem was not discovered until 2011. Then, work by Mark Browne, Imogen Napper and Professor Richard Thompson highlighted the issue.​

So what are micro-plastic fibres?

​The name is a bit of a giveaway. They are minute pieces of plastic that are shed every time we wash clothes made from synthetic materials such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and spandex. This happens at standard temperatures around 30C and 40C. These pieces of plastic are really tiny, only around 15 micrometres or 0.000015 metres across and about 6mm long. It is estimated that a 6kg wash load of various synthetic materials produces the following number of fibres:

138,000 from polyester cotton fabrics

500,000 from polyester fabrics

730,000 from acrylic fabrics

Of course this does not happen if you use clothes made from natural fibres such as wool, cotton, hemp, bamboo and rayon, although beware, some of these products require vast volumes of water and pesticides to produce, nothing is ever clear cut.

Take a look at some clothes in your wardrobe and check which are synthetic and which are natural, you may have a shock.

Unfortunately micro-plastic fibres end up in our oceans, they pass from our washing machines into the local water system and eventually into the ocean. The sheer scale of the problem is mind blowing, think how many washing machines there are in UK and how often we all use them!

Micro-plastic fibres have been found from the Earth’s poles to the equator, there is nowhere untouched. We are all at risk.

It is now estimated that 85% of the human – man made material found on the shoreline are micro-plastic fibres and match the types of material found in nylon and acrylic clothing.

Once in the ocean, what happens to these fibres?

The image above was taken by Richard Kirby (AKA the Plankton Pundit). It shows an arrow worm ingesting a micro-plastic fibre. This organism is part of the planktonic life in our oceans and sits close to the bottom of the food chain.

Alarmingly, not only will this organism die but it is likely to be eaten by a creature further up the food chain, this creature is then eaten by another organism slightly further up the chain and so on. But why should this matter? The micro plastic fibre is so small that surely it does not affect the larger creatures in a food chain. Unfortunately this is not the case because as the plastic moves from organism to organism it bio-accumulates.

This happens because once the plastic has been ingested, it transfers from (the animals) stomachs to their circulation system and actually accumulates in their cells, thus toxic pollutants increase in concentration as they move up the food chain, until eventually they reach us. By the time we eat fish, shellfish or crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters we could be ingesting relatively high levels of toxins.

Currently it is difficult to carry out meaningful tests on the effects of plastic toxins on man because every human is contaminated by plastic toxins to some extent or other, that means we do not have a control reference point, however other tests indicate that toxins present in plastics or additives can cause a wide range of possible symptoms including:

Skin rashes and lesions that can be cancerous

Nausea

Unexplained fatigue

Burning and itching

Unexplained headaches

Blurred vision

Difficulty breathing

Reoccurring sinus infections not previously experienced

Sudden inflammation and pain; especially in soft tissues

These can come from ingesting or even just skin contact from chemicals such as Bisphenol A, PFC’s (added to plastics to make them last longer), PCB’s absorbed from the aquatic environment by plastics (PCB’s were banned in 1979 but are a highly toxic persistent pollutant still present in our oceans).

As you can see this is a serious problem because micro-plastic fibres do not discriminate between rich and poor, old and young or even organism type, they are polluting everything.

So what can we do? Here are a few ideas:

Take a look at your buying habits and try swapping synthetics for natural fibres such as cotton, wool, hemp, silk, rayon and bamboo

Wash clothes at lower temperatures

Look for less aggressive detergents

Hang dry rather than using a tumble dryer (it is less aggressive on your clothes)

Explain the issue to family and friends

If you can, install a water softener, you will need less detergent and there is less damage

Encourage friends and family to buy less clothes and if they buy synthetics suggest they buy better quality clothes, they release fewer fibres.

Use social media to spread the word - please share this article!!

It is down to us to make the change. Form more information please visit the following links:

China and India are expected to release vast amounts of the chemical hydroflourocarbon-23 (HFC-23) into the atmosphere, causing global greenhouse gas emissions to skyrocket, according to a report launched by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

HFC-23, a by-product in the production of a chemical (HCFC-22) primarily used in air conditioning and refrigeration, is 14,800 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide (CO₂).

EIA investigators have discovered that many Chinese and Indian facilities, despite having destruction technology readily available, are releasing or threatening to emit the by-product unless they receive additional financing to dispose of the chemicals. Plants that produce HCFC-22 in other developing countries could also do the same. If this happens, it would cause the release of more than two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) into the atmosphere by 2020, more than one-quarter of China’s annual CO₂ emissions.

“Chinese and Indian companies are holding the world hostage by threatening to set off a climate bomb if they don’t receive millions of dollars for the destruction of the HFC-23 that they are producing,” said Mark W. Roberts, EIA’s International Policy Advisor. “The Chinese government has the opportunity to defuse a large portion of this ‘bomb.’ It should take the first step toward implementing the HFC agreement made two weeks ago by immediately mandating the destruction of HFC-23 in all Chinese plants.”

HFC-23 has been the focus for the first emission reduction projects funded through the United Nation’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Under the UN program, incinerators for HFC-23 are installed at 19 refrigerant facilities, mostly in China and India but also in South Korea, Argentina and Mexico, to help control the super greenhouse gas.

Destruction of HFC-23 is extremely cheap; however, refrigerant companies have made billions of dollars in windfall profits from the sale of carbon credits, maximized through manipulation of HCFC-22 and HFC-23 production levels. In response, the European Emissions Trading Scheme – the world’s largest carbon market – banned the trade of HFC-23 credits as of May 1, 2013. Other carbon markets have followed suit, resulting in the collapse of the HFC-23 credit market.

“Any venting of HFC-23 is a monumental scandal, given that destroying HFC-23 is about the cheapest climate mitigation available and the billions already made by these companies through the CDM,” said Clare Perry, EIA’s Senior Campaigner. “The EU is considering legislation that will mandate destruction of all HFC-23 by-product and we strongly urge China, India and all other countries with HCFC-22 facilities to do the same and ensure all of these plants bring HFC-23 emissions down to zero.”

HCFC-22 producers in developed countries, including chemical giants Dupont, Honeywell and Arkema, share responsibility for ongoing HFC-23 emissions. Best available technologies and maintenance practices allow 99.99 percent of HFC-23 to be destroyed and there is no excuse for continued HFC-23 emissions from these companies.

The EIA report is being launched as the Montreal Protocol meeting kicks off in Bangkok and two weeks after the Chinese and US governments agreed to work together to phase down HFCs using the Montreal Protocol process.

“While we applaud the US and China for taking a step in the right direction on HFCs, immediate action to control HFC-23 will give life to the words of the Agreement” said Alexander von Bismarck, EIA’s Executive Director. “Almost all of the HFC-23 emissions in the United States are attributed to just two facilities owned by Honeywell and Dupont; these companies should lead by example and destroy all of their HFC-23.”

As a nation our debt is increasing at an unbelievable £5,170 per second, that is an average UK wage going onto our debt every 5.13 seconds. The total debt now stands at around 1.885 trillion pounds, the numbers are so huge that realistically the world cannot afford for us to fail financially, so the debt will just carry on increasing.

Our government continually tells us to put our own financial affairs in order when they have made the most almighty screw up of all time over the last few parliaments. Unfortunately we are not handling things much better ourselves. We owed a staggering £1.537 trillion at the end of May 2017, up from £1.489 trillion at the end of May 2016 – an extra £929.97 per UK adult. The only difference between us and the government is we as individuals are allowed to fail and end up insolvent or bankrupt (currently 248 a day), we can lose everything, but the government can’t!

Did you know that more than a third of young adults are in debt to the tune of around £3,000 and the average total debt per household in this year – including mortgages – is £56,731. Frightening.

Rents are rising, bills are rising, food prices are rising and soon interest rates are likely to rise as well, great for savers but not if you have debt or a mortgage just reaching the end of a very low fixed rate. It would be OK if wages were rising at close to inflation, but they are not and inflation is starting to run away, it was 2.9% at the end of May, the highest in 4 years whereas wages are only rising at 1.8%.

We are a long way off the crazy inflation rates of the 1990’s but we have to be realistic, they are only likely to go one way. People have been forced to take out huge mortgages just to join the property ladder, so let us hope that we do not see a return to mass repossessions. Currently just 14 properties are repossessed every day, nowhere near the rates of 205 per day as seen in 1991, however with increasing interest rates we could see a significant rise in these numbers.

Everything seems to be going the wrong way at the moment, we are saving less than ever as a nation, so how are we going to pay for our old age? There is a £1.3 trillion black hole in the public sector pension fund, which suggests there will be nothing for any of us in the near future. How are we going to fill the gap, can someone let us know?

Based on May 2017 trends, the UK’s total interest repayments on personal debt over a 12 month period will be £50.002 billion, this means that households in the UK would have paid an average of £1,845 in annual interest repayments or £966 per person. All that money going to financial institutions when you could have been spending it on yourself and your family.

If you find yourself in debt, don’t bury your head in the sand, that’s the worst thing you can do. It won’t just go away, in-fact all that will happen is you will fall further and further into a black hole. One day you may find a bailiff knocking on the door, by then it’s almost too late and you could lose everything.

Here’s a nice little fact to throw into global warming debates. Peat bogs cover nearly 2-3% of the Earth’s surface and contain more ‘locked-away’ carbon than all the Earth’s forests.

This is because bog plants absorb CO₂ from the air as they grow, then when they die the carbon is locked away in organic chemicals in the soaking peat for thousands of years. They act as vast carbon sinks, as do oil, coal and gas fields. Peat is the largest and most efficient land-based store of carbon, and the world’s second largest carbon store after the oceans. Peat bogs store on average 10 times more carbon per hectare than any other ecosystem.

Unfortunately man takes peat and destroys peat bogs for a number of reasons:

To be burnt as fuel.

Used in agriculture and gardening to improve soil structure, improve mineral / water retention and maintain acidity.

Drained and ploughed for farming and forestry.

These activities mean that CO₂ from the peat is released back into the atmosphere, boosting global warming as well as destroying important habitats (click here for more on CO₂).

In Britain more than 45% of the original peatland has been damaged by man, according to a report from Exeter University's Wetland Ecosystems Research Group. Its scientists estimate that exploitation of the bogs results in CO₂ emissions which amount to 40% of the CO₂ produced by all of the UK's cars, buses, lorries, trains and aircraft.

On a global scale a report by Catherine Brahic indicates that burning, draining, and degrading peat bogs emits carbon dioxide equivalent to more than one tenth of the global emissions released from burning fossil fuels, and two thirds of those emissions come from Southeast Asia, primarily Indonesia.

While the figures may look bleak, the good news is that degraded peatlands can be restored, this means that the equivalent of one tenth of the global emissions from fossil fuels could be prevented from entering the atmosphere simply by blocking the man-made channels that drain peatlands to make way for agriculture.

“Protecting and restoring peatlands is a ‘low hanging fruit’ and among the most cost-effective options for mitigating climate change,” says Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, in Bali.

One such project is already underway to restore some peat bogs in Kalimantan, Indonesia (aided by Wetlands International). The project, which involves working with local communities to build dams across the channels that have been dug to drain the peatlands of their vital water, and has already reduced emissions by 6.5 million tonnes per year.

On a more personal level we can all make a difference, every time you go to a garden centre to buy compost for your garden look for ‘peat-free’ products which contain sustainable alternatives. This is not as easy as it sounds as the majority of composts seem to contain some peat, however concerted demand for peat-free products from all of us will soon sort that!

​As global warming accelerates we are seeing another consequence of the resultant increased atmospheric temperature, sea levels are rising. Over the last century the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 10-20cm, however over the last 20 years the annual rate of rise has been 3.2mm a year, roughly twice the average speed of the previous 80 years.

These sea level rises are as a result of the following three factors:

Thermal expansion – the sea absorbs around 80% of the additional heat in the atmosphere and as the sea temperature rises it expands. About 50% of the sea level rise is simply due to the water occupying more space.

Melting Glaciers and Polar Ice Caps – generally, large ice formations such as glaciers and polar ice caps shrink and expand at a balanced rate to give around the same amount of ice each year. However higher temperatures have led to greater summer melting as well as reduced snowfall due to later Winters and earlier Springs. The imbalance means there is more melted water runoff compared to ocean evaporation, resulting in sea level rise.

Ice loss from Greenland and West Antarctica – increased atmospheric temperatures are causing the huge ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica to melt at an accelerated rate. In addition the higher sea temperatures are causing the massive ice shelves to melt from below, weaken and break off.

Even the small increases we have seen over the last century can have a devastating effect on the coastal environment. As the seawater encroaches further inland, it can cause a whole range of problems such as erosion, wetland flooding, aquifer and soil contamination, and lost habitat for plants, fish and birds.

The option of restoring the balance is not possible right now so we can expect sea levels rises for centuries and at rates greater than we are currently experiencing. The exact rates of rise are very difficult to predict and so estimates of sea level by 2100 range from an increase of 98cm to 7m, the latter being the result of a complete meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet. Even at the lower levels, this means many of the cities along the US East coast will be swamped, at the higher level even London will be under water.

The consequences of global warming means bigger and more powerful storms and as sea levels rise this means bigger and more powerful storm surges. Hundreds of millions of people are at risk worldwide, and everyone who lives near a coast line will be affected, with consequent huge loss of homes and even some whole islands.

This is a crisis in motion and we are making token gestures to combat the sea level rise, we need to take this seriously if we are to avert disaster. Or is it already too late?​

Destruction of the rainforest in Indonesia (photo: David Gilbert/RAN).

The growth of the palm oil industry

​Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet, demand has undergone a phenomenal growth and is expected to more than double by 2030 and triple by 2050. Not surprising when it is thought to be found in about 50% of supermarket products, from food to cleaners to cosmetics.

Between 1990 and 2010, it is estimated that 8.7 million acres of rainforest in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea were cleared for palm plantations, an area nearly twice the size of Wales. In the same time, Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil, has seen a 600% growth in the area covered by plantations with an associated loss of 40% of its lowland rainforests.​Next on the list is Central Africa, with more than a million acres of rainforest under imminent threat.

The effects of this mass destruction are devastating to a range of environmental and cultural aspects...

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EcoFrenzy has researched the market and to the best of our knowledge, figures and data are accurate at the time of publication. EcoFrenzy is not responsible for any inaccuracies and will not engage in correspondence, but will update facts and figures when necessary or appropriate.​

The data we use to work out energy and water costs come from a range of reliable international sources to give an average figure. Figures are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number.​* Total amounts potentially saved do not include lighting in individual rooms, or use of secondary heating.